How To Make Friends While Solo Traveling

Cover photo by Eddie Billard on Unsplash

Despite being alone, solo traveling can be one of the most social experiences you have and can even feel less lonely than traveling with a friend or partner. If you really put yourself out there, you’ll find that you learn more about a place and about future travel ideas from the people you meet than you could’ve otherwise. Most of my favorite travel memories have to do with the people, and not the place. If you try solo traveling without making an effort to make friends, you might find it hard. I know that when I don’t make an effort, the city always remains a little darker in my memory, even though my experience was a fault of my own. That being said, it’s not easy to know where to start to connect with other solo travelers. Here are my recommendations for meeting people on your journey!

Accommodation Type: Stay At Hostels

The number one guaranteed way to feel lonely and second guess your solo traveling decision is to stay in private accommodation. I recommend doing this every now and then to have a break from hostels, but only once you’ve been going at it for a while.

If you don’t know, hostels are a type of accommodation where you sleep in shared rooms with bunk beds and shared bathrooms. You also share common spaces like kitchens, lounge spaces, and laundry facilities. They often have the options to participate in activities or meals together as well. All of this, for a fraction of the price. There are many, many reasons to choses hostels over hotels or Airbnbs; finding friends is only one of them.

Now that I’ve convinced you to stay at a hostel, an important step to maximizing friendship potential is choosing the hostel. Party hostels are well… pretty self-explanatory in the name, but they are a safe bet if your main goal is meeting people. They will always have pub crawls, or even bars at the hostel. This of course only works if you are comfortable around drinking, BUT I often stay at party hostels even if I am not planning to party but am feeling social. This is because I know that everyone staying there is looking to meet other people, and people are still looking to hang out during the day or on their off nights.

The important thing to look out for is whether the hostel offers activities (free things going on at the hostel like yoga, walking tours, and movie nights), excursions (bookable tours), or group meals (sometimes paid). All of these options not only elevate a hostel vibe but increase your chances of making friends. Whether these things are offered is usually listed in the hostel description on the booking website

This is Thomas, who I met at a Bosnian hostel breakfast after I didn’t like my food and offered some to him. This is us ziplining together in Montenegro a few days later. We are still good friends after 3 years!

Finally, look into whether there is an age limit. This is not super important, but some hostels let in families, while others set age minimums and limits. If you are traveling when you are older, you’ll want to make sure you meet the age restrictions (35 is a common age limit) and if you are younger, you can use this to know what sort of vibe you may find yourself in. This is not a guarantee though, and I wouldn’t place too much judgement based on age.

Booking Platform: Use HostelWorld

When you are booking hostels, you can book them on booking.com, the hostel website, or a hostel-focused platform called HostelWorld. If the prices are the same, I recommend using HostelWorld to book because it allows you to join a chat for your upcoming hostel stay, along with the other people staying there. Often it is dead, but there are many times I have found activities or made friends from those chats. It’s worth a shot!

In Stuttgart, I found friends to go to the Cannstatter Volksfest with through the HostelWorld chat and through an old hostel friend. She put me in contact with her sisters, who got us into the tent and we all hung out together! Would you have guessed that many people in this picture just met?

Tip: don’t send the pre-written messages that HostelWorld suggests to you like “Hey, anyway else solo traveling?” because no one EVER answers those. Instead, write something specific like “Hey, I want to go to dinner tonight in the city center, anyone want to join?”

Go On Free Walking Tours

Most cities have a free walking tour. Not only are they a great way to learn about the place you are staying, but you can be assured other travelers are joining them. Again, you still need to be brave and strike up a conversation first though.

To find the meeting points for these, you can just google “free walking tour in (insert city)” or ask your hostel staff, who usually know.

Ask Interesting Questions

Ah, the universal dread of wandering into a hostel kitchen preparing to answer, “where are you from?” and “how long have you been here?” 15 times. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these questions, but they don’t always lead to more. People just get bored of them. So, if you start with these questions, make sure to provide invigorating follow-up. You’re more likely to make a real connection this way instead of collecting people you’ve met from other countries like trophies.

Follow up questions to “where are you from?”

• Tell them something you like about their country (do NOT start shitting on where they are from. Sad that I have to say this, but when I tell people I’m from the U.S. there’s a good chance they will tell me how horrible it is, even without having been… needless to say, we do not become friends)
• Tell them about something you want to see there, and ask what they think
• Ask if they miss it
• Ask if they want to live there long-term

This is in Slovenia, all having met on this night, where we decided to pose with the statue after having dinner and dancing in the street with the locals. Not even from the same hostel, I can’t remember how we met but it probably started with a “where are you from?” question. Eventually we grew to be an American, a Norwegian, an Austrailan, and 2 people from Belarus!

Other conversation starters:

• Have you solo-traveled before? And do you like it?
• How do you like the country so far?
• Have you done anything fun here yet?
• Where is your favorite place you’ve visited so far?
• What is something you miss about home?
• Have you found any cute coffee shops here? (or restaurants or whatever you want to see)
• Any tips for seeing the town?
• Find a common interest and talk about that, it doesn’t have to be travel related! I often strike up convo when people are wearing clothes from places I recognize, and sometimes I even eavesdrop and join the conversation.

Ways to transition into hanging out:

• I am going to do (Insert Activity) today, want to join?
• I want to go out for dinner tonight, want to join?
• Are you going to the hostel activity? I was thinking about it but I’m not sure
• Do you have whatsapp/Instagram?
• I was also thinking about doing (insert activity they are doing), do you mind if I join?

Use Friend-Finding Apps

I haven’t tried this one, but it seems like it’s worth a shot! They are sometimes like dating apps with matching, and other times they are just open meetup or event invitations. Some of the ones I have heard of are Bumble BFF, TripBFF, NomadHer (women only), Nomadtable, Meetup, Travello, and Backpackr.

However, I would not put all your eggs into this basket. While these apps are a cool idea that I have been meaning to try, I have yet to actually meet someone who uses them. That means there may not be that many people on there. And, just like dating apps, there’s always a chance you find weird people instead of your next bff.

You can’t escape the need to force yourself to speak up and be brave in the wild! Still, using friend-finding apps could be a nice addition

Book Organized Tours/Excursions.

This is one of the very few times I will tell you to book an organized excursion instead of doing it yourself. While some of these can cram too much into one day or be overpriced, they can also take away a lot of the pressure of planning and overcoming hurdles alone. Sometimes the struggles you face traveling can make you feel lonelier, because there’s no one to help or even share your qualms with. Booking a guided tour is like booking an inclusive resort, they do all the dirty work for you while you just enjoy the ride.

Sometimes, you can even meet fellow solo travelers on these tours (I have done it before). On the bus ride to your attraction, you can easily look for people sitting alone and sit near them. It’s no guarantee, but it’s definitely possible. And sometimes, just being surrounded by other people who are having the same experience as you can be comforting, even if you don’t become friends with them.

Most Important: Be Brave!

The most important thing to remember is that YOU have to put yourself out there! If you wait for friendships and travel buddies to happen naturally, you miss a lot of opportunities. Don’t be afraid to approach people wherever you are (so long as it’s appropriate and respectful).

If you’re in the club and see a group of people that look fun, go up to them and ask to dance with them. If you’re in a museum or at a tourist attraction and you see someone who looks like a fellow traveler, ask them! If you are in a café and overhear people talking about where they are from and where they’ve been, that is a CLASSIC “we just met at the hostel conversation” ask to join! Spot someone reading your favorite book? Tell them!

Two girls I met at plitvice lakes national park in Croatia and Ben, who I met hiking in Albania. No organized tour – in both cases we just started chatting and ended up hiking the rest of the way together!

Everywhere around you is an opportunity, you just need to have the courage to take it. I promise it gets easier every time you do it.